-Down to Earth This comes even as rural India is suffering its worst unemployment crisis in 45 years The Union government slashed budgetary allocation for its flagship Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Generation Act (MGNREGA) in the Budget 2020-21, at a time when rural India is facing all sorts of crises including rising food bills and highest unemployment in the last five decades MGNREGA guarantees at least 100 days of employment to adults...
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Civil society demands for increase in budgetary allocation under MGNREGA to clear pending wages
-Press release by NREGA Sangharsh Morcha dated 31st January, 2020 Rural distress has risen to alarming levels. As per the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) of 2017-18, rural unemployment stands at 8 percent (statement 30 in Section 3.7, PLFS). In conjunction with skyrocketing food inflation levels, this is a serious concern. The situation is much worse for the landless depending on casual manual labour who constitute more than half the rural...
More »Centre should implement land reforms to prevent farmer suicides: Mahila Kisan Adhikaar Manch -Ritwika Mitra
-The New Indian Express Activists said women’s lack of visibility as farmers due to lack of land ownership is not reflected in the farmer suicide numbers published by the states. NEW DELHI: The government should implement land reforms on a priority basis in order to prevent farmer suicides, said Mahila Kisan Adhikaar Manch (MAKAAM), a forum fighting for the rights of women farmers. Activists said women’s lack of visibility as farmers due to...
More »Government must engage in a collaborative effort with farmer groups -Ajay Vir Jakhar
-The Indian Express There is an ambiguous provision to levy income tax on “dairying”. Either the provision should be removed or it should be clarified that it does not include dairy farmers. Dairying is a part of agriculture and as per the Constitution, it is a state subject. Those in power may not yet be accepting blame for the barrage of negative news on the state of the economy, but cracks are...
More »Is MGNREGS the answer to the rural slowdown? -Sneha Alexander & Nikita Kwatra
-Livemint.com MGNREGS could alleviate rural distress but, in its current form, its overall impact on the rural economy is limited in scope With rural distress deepening across India and private consumption growing anaemically, calls for ramping up the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), are growing louder ahead of the upcoming budget. Proponents of MGNREGS believe that it may be the only ammunition in the government’s arsenal to fight rural...
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